Looking Past the Cover
by Taemanaku
Summary: [OneShot] Most people get to know each other through the little things they experience. And even in Beast Boy's case, he can find this may be true. [RavenBeast Boy]


**Disclaimer: **As much as I wish Titans Tower suddenly sprung up in my backyard anyday, I'm quite sure I would still hold no rights to the characters inside. So, there. I disclaim the wondrous chibis I can't wake up to every morning. -pouts-

_A/N:_ This quite common idea sprang up at me as I tossed and turned at one in the morning yesterday, and wrote at noon this day, so please understand the lack of proper reactions and some OOCness that I couldn't escape. Otherwise, enjoy.

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Looking Past the Cover

One-Shot

"How 'bout this one, Raven? This looks like something you'd read," Beast Boy waggled his eyebrows up at her as he picked up an ancient, dusty book from the shelves.

Raven sniffed in response and turned her back to him, deciding to look in another section.

"Oh, come on, Rae. It looks just like the rest of the junk you read," he said, stepping in front of her, clutching the dusty book to his chest.

She narrowed her eyes at him dangerously. "So you think this is junk, Beast Boy? You can just wait—"

"Eh, no! No, no—not junk," he backed away, afraid she would hurt him. "Besides, this place is cool." He looked around at the bookstore. Noticing the spiderwebs in the corners and scuttling mice, he was forced to bite back a gulp of fear. "I mean, sure a little creepy, but--"

Raven threw him another threatening glare. "The door is only feet away."

"Heh, just joking..." Beast Boy said, laughing nervously. He looked around the shop again, not releasing his initial thoughts of the place. It really was creepy. With those large, luminescent skulls at the top of the shelves and spiderwebs that hung everywhere. And... Beast Boy strained his eyesight to make out something on the wall... did those stuffed deer's eyes look like they stared at him? A small shiver rippled through him and he stepped back, running into a figure behind him.

"Watch where you're going," the apathetic statement was spoken through clenched teeth as he turned to see an aggravated Raven behind him.

"S-sorry Raven," he mumbled out.

She sighed exasperatedly. "Why didn't you just go with Starfire to Hot Topic instead? I'm sure you'd enjoy yourself better there."

"Well, I always do that. So I thought I'd come with you to your creepy bookstore for a change."

Raven rolled her eyes impatiently. "Then don't just stand around and gawk at everything, running into people. Go find yourself something." She turned to the counter with her purchases before Beast Boy grabbed one of her arms, confused.

"Wait—you mean, you want me to find a book?" he asked, befuddled.

Raven warily eyed the hand that had attached itself to her arm and said, "Yes. Go find a book for yourself."

"But-but, dude. You _know_ I wouldn't read it," Beast Boy laughed to himself at the suggestion.

"So? I'll take it instead. Just go find something before a store employee throws you out for messing up their displays." With that, she turned her back to him and went to the counter, asking suggestions about one thick book or another. Beast Boy watched her go, then turned and went into an unoccupied isle to see what the bookstore had to offer.

He had honestly expected them to have comic and video game cheats sections, but one look at the dusty, filthy shelves told him otherwise. The floorboards beneath him creaked with age as he stepped over them warily and the old wooden shelves looked ready to collapse lest he touch them. He took in the sight of the long isle and then prepared to find something worth reading.

But even that proved to be hopeless. Each book he picked up looked as dusty and gray as the next. It looked as if the whole shelf was filled with just one type of book, and the titles were so filthy he couldn't make them out at all. _Maybe I'll be needing glasses after this_, Beast Boy thought amusedly as he imagined the sight and put down another book back on its respective shelf. He came across a small, wooden table in the isle with a display of popular books. As he stared at it, he reached forward to touch a forefront book when he saw the chains around the object. His eyes widened. _Why would it need to be bound...?_ He wondered, confused. Hoping he wouldn't need to find out, he hastily grabbed a random book from the shelves and rushed out of the isle.

Raven was already paying for her purchases by the front counter when Beast Boy found her. She turned to gaze at him expressionlessly as he placed down the book of his choice. She noticed him looking back at the isle he'd strode from and wondered what he might have seen to scare him like that. _Maybe he's seen one of those hunting spears they store in the back,_ she thought amusedly.

Beast Boy turned to face her and she saw the semi-alarm on his face. "Do they... chain books up here?"

She looked at him for a moment, confused. "Sometimes. If it's meant for someone with a higher level and experience—they do that to be sure."

"Oh," Beast Boy said, looking down at the book that was about to be scanned and bought.

Raven let her gaze linger on it too, "_Ancient Jests and Hoaxes_, huh? That should appeal to you." Beast Boy looked up at her, wondering how she'd read the title when he himself had no idea where it was located.

"It's on the cover," she told him, as if catching his thoughts through a mere gaze. "They never put it on the spine here."

"Right," he blushed, thinking himself stupid for not figuring that out. Raven simply let her lips twitch into a small smile before turning to the cashier to pay for her purchases.

"That'll be $84.95," the young blonde at the cashier said. Raven's smile flew right from her lips and she frowned, but paid nonetheless.

"You know," Beast Boy said as they walked from the bookstore. "I could've paid for some of that. Robin lent me some money if I wanted to buy a comic for today."

Raven let a small growl escape her lips before stepping over the store's threshold.

"Then you're definitely paying next time."

* * *

A small knock at Raven's door make her sigh impatiently. She opened the door enough so that a small crack of light escaped into the hallway. 

"What do you want, Beast Boy?" she asked irritably, hoping to get back to her reading.

"Well..." he began, opening his own dusty book to a page at the front. "There's this word here I don't get, so I figured—"

Raven frowned, her apathetic gaze turning edgy with impatience, "That's what dictionaries are for. And if I suddenly look like a book to you—"

"No, but you can explain it better," Beast Boy beamed at her, still clutching the book to its page.

"No, Beast Boy. Go find a dictionary. Look it up on Encarta. Find Robin—ask anyone else but me," she sighed irately. "I'm almost finished with my book, so if you'll at least come back later, I could help you."

"You are?" Beast Boy stared at her wide-eyed. "Dude, I'm still on the third page!"

Raven felt an eye twitch from annoyance. "That's astounding, Beast Boy. I'm sure any progress is better than none."

He still stared at her with half-envy, half-worshiped amazement. "Dude... if I could read that fast—"

Raven finally slammed the door closed, irritably getting back to her own book.

"Not even Batman himself would recognize you."

* * *

"Yo, Raven? You gonna join us?" Cyborg shouted from the water slide as he flew down and splashed into the pool. 

Raven eyed them emotionlessly, not willing something as typical as a pool party to distract her from her newest book. She watched as Robin and Starfire lingered by the pool side, turned to each other and speaking in the bright sunshine. Starfire was laughing, one hand around a lock of flaming, bright hair as Robin told her one amusing thing or another.

And Beast Boy... _Where _was_ Beast Boy?_ Raven wondered detachedly. He was nowhere near the pool, though she'd expected him to be, as there were at least a few high school girls splashing around in the water. Not by the small area where people were serving drinks, so then where—

As soon as she'd thought that, a voice exclaimed in her ear, "Hey, Raven! Why don't you do something? There's drinks by that place, and the water's cool."

She watched as Beast Boy plopped down into a wooden bench beside her. She threw him a small glare. "I'm reading."

His gaze looked down at the ancient book in her lap. "Oh, didn't catch that." Then realizing she was in the beginning few pages of the novel, his eyes widened and he said, "Hey, you've already finished that other book?"

"Yes," she said irritably. "And if you wouldn't mind, I'd very much like to finish this one too."

"That's cool," he said, "I'm still somewhere on the fourth chapter, I think." He looked up as if trying to remember an exact page number.

Raven let her surprise show. "You're still reading that?"

"Yeah, awesome isn't it?" He gave up trying to remember and gave her a broad grin.

"Somewhat," she said dryly.

"The chapters are pretty long though. I still wanna finish it. It's been like... two weeks since I've started." He grinned at her again and she let her lips display a small smile.

"So, what's this book about?" he pointed down at the open pages.

Raven looked at it reluctantly for a moment, knowing she wouldn't get back to reading now that he'd started a conversation. "Well, it starts about—"

Her statement was interrupted when a splash of water spattered on the two from the pool not two feet away. Raven closed her book quickly but the cover was still splashed, and she herself was drenched. Beside her, a befuddled Beast Boy tilted both eyebrows up in confusion, sputtering pool water from his mouth and shaking the moisture from his hair.

"Sorry, guys!" Cyborg shouted joyfully from the pool, not looking the least bit apologetic. Beast Boy watched as Raven fumed away to the area where drinks were served and opened her book there to start reading despite the wet cover.

Beast Boy sighed, looked across at the grinning Cyborg and tried to bristle into anger. "Now look what you did, Cy! We were actually having a conversation for once!" But even as he gazed at his friend, trying to summon up some anger or rage, he couldn't take the beginning grin off his face. The cannon ball was, after all, still pretty cool, he thought.

"Man, don't even joke like that," Cyborg laughed as he jumped out of the pool for another go at the slide.

* * *

Beast Boy sat on upon the boulder outside Titans Tower, willing himself to take in another word of the ancient book. His eyes were tired and strained from having read this much, which he was sure—was more than he'd read in his entire lifetime. But he was at the last page, at the very top, and with the thought of an encouraging smile from Raven, he continued to read. 

The gentle breeze picked at his forest's hair and his eyes continued to scan the small words in the passage, taking them in and trying to understand them, when the alarm sounded in the Tower. His head snapped up and he watched as the Titans leapt from the building to fight one villain or another—and he was actually a bit annoyed at the terrible timing—but with a last glance at the book, he left it on the rocky boulder and followed the team out over the water.

* * *

"Well, at least Control Freak ain't likely to be getting his switch back any time soon," Cyborg said as they made their way back to the island. 

"Or escaping his secured prison cell," Starfire added as she dropped Robin onto the sandy beach and the three began their way to the Tower doors. Cyborg paused for a moment, looking back at Beast Boy, who was silently making his way to a boulder on the beach, and then Raven—who looked hesitant as to where to go. He smirked at them for another brief second before lightly closing the Tower door but leaving it unlocked. Whatever they had to figure out was their business.

Beast Boy plopped back down on the rocky boulder and opened his old book to the last page again. His attention was fully on the words when he heard a small shuffle and someone else sat down on the same, large rock, patiently waiting. He smiled to himself and continued to read, finally at the last paragraph now.

His eyes skipped over the words quickly, but still retaining the meaning each sentence presented. He stumbled over a word he didn't know, but ignored it. Maybe he'd look it up later; all that mattered now was finishing the last statement that loomed in sight. And finally—when he thought his mind couldn't take it anymore, his eyes sought the last words of the book, and with triumph, gazed splendidly at the period of it all. His sighed a happy smile and closed the book with a _thunk_.

Raven shifted beside him, questioning. He looked up and saw a small smile play at her lips, and a broad grin met her gaze.

"You're finished," she stated, breaking his gaze and looking over the water.

"Yeah... that was a long book," he laughed.

She nodded slightly, "I have some other books you could look at." She heard him scoff at the suggestion and frowned slightly.

"What?" she turned to him.

He blushed, "N-nothing. I just don't think I'll be reading much for a while."

"You didn't like it then?" she questioned.

"Dude, no way! The book was great, but I can't read anymore right now." He laughed again, "I think if I stare at another book right now I'd be seeing blank dots in front of me."

She smiled slightly at the suggestion and continued to stare across the water. Beast Boy gazed at her for a moment, seeing a pink tint that was raised at her cheeks.

It had taken him three weeks to finish the book, he realized, but the full effect of it reached him now that it was finished and over with. It had been long, but it had also taken him by surprise. The book revealed much more to him than he thought it might've contained and as he looked at Raven he could make the same comparison. He may have seen her in one light since the very beginning, but now that she'd shared something with him—even the smallest smile or the most diminutive sentence—he understood how much more he had to learn about her.

And it was the same with this book. He may have finished it but there were still things that were left hidden in its pages. He might have to reread it to enlarge the image it had given him.

"Beast Boy?" Raven's voice brought him to stare at her face again. "Thanks for doing that for me."

"Eh? Doing what?" he asked, confused.

"Reading the book when you didn't have to."

He smiled slightly, "Hey, it's no problem. It wasn't that bad."

A silence elapsed as they stared at the water again. Robin might soon call them in, Beast Boy thought. Maybe they'd go out for pizza soon, or Cyborg would ask him to play video games in the living room. Beast Boy stretched as he still sat upon the boulder.

"You know, Raven..." he began, almost thinking to himself, making that same comparison again. "That book..."

Her face turned towards him again, and his next metaphorical statement brought a smile to her eyes.

"There really was a lot more when I looked past the cover."

* * *

A/N: And that's the end of that. Another one-shot finished and posted. And I certainly hope it wasn't too much trouble to read this, if it wasn't absolutely appreciated. But thanks for reading anyways. 


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